Only Ice Cream for Dessert ! Everything Else On Kitchen Floor
Written: Jul 22 '06 (Updated Jul 24 '06)
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Pros: Relaxing, entertaining and fun.
Cons: Teething troubles. Too many $$ add-ons. Ship almost capsizes
The Bottom Line: A relaxing and enjoyable time, at least for the first 7 days. They need to iron out the teething problems but I'm confident they will.
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| jcare's Full Review: Crown Princess |
Yes – those were indeed the words our waiter uttered the evening of Tuesday July 22nd, about 5-6 hours after the Crown Princess had violently rolled over 20 degrees to starboard, injuring nearly 200 passengers and crew on board. I’ll tell our story at the end of this epinion, but meanwhile , here is the review I had originally written and was ready to post onboard and I haven’t changed a word.
Crown Princess - The 95% solution : Princess or Pretender
Oh! So nearly. Crown so nearly got it right with the new Crown Princess – but there were enough small details and annoyances to take the edge off a great vacation. We sailed on the Western Caribbean trip – actually the CP’s fourth cruise, but only the second on this itinerary.
The Boat – Facts and Figures
The Itinerary
The CP leaves from the new Brooklyn Terminal, making for an interesting collection of passengers. The terminal is brand spanking new, and check-in/embarkation was very efficient. Getting to the terminal is a bit of an adventure, so I’d recommend a taxi/minivan to get you there, or else have someone drop you off as navigating the NYC expressways and then paying $150 to park will not prove to be a relaxing start to your vacation.
The ship departed at 5pm – offering a champagne view of the lower Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty and then passing under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. You then spend the next two days at sea, offering ample time to learn how to navigate around the boat. The first port of call is Grand Turk, followed by Ocho Rios in Jamaica and Grand Cayman. Then you get a sea day, Port Canaveral, Florida, another sea day before arriving at 7am back in New York.
General Facilities
Despite handling 3100 passengers the boat rarely seemed crowded except during port days when everyone was either leaving or returning to the boat. There is a full calendar of events starting from a 7am yoga stretch, through bingo, ceramics, computer workshops, bridge, trivia, bands, pool games etc. You name it, they seem to offer it.
There are onboard programs for young children, preteens and teens – with plenty of cruise personnel to keep them occupied. We were traveling kid-less so didn’t get to investigate this much, but most of the families I spoke with were very satisfied with the programs. I never saw gangs of teenagers roaming the decks day or night, in fact the only security incidents I witnessed were caused by drunken and extremely obnoxious New Yorkers.
Which brings me to the (original) title of this epinion – the 95% solution. Everybody had something to complain about – and no-one was ecstatic about the vacation, although there were plenty of OK’s, good and a few greats – but none of the wonderfuls and amazings we had encountered on our previous cruise. So you need to approach the cruise with realism that nothing is going to run perfectly for ten days and ignore the small stuff and focus on meaningful issues.
The restaurant reviews come later, but every cruise basically stuffs you with food 24 by 7. Wary of putting on 10 pounds in 10 days I decided to work out every day as I do at home. The gym opens at 7am (an hour too late in my view), and other than the first morning of good intentions was never packed. However, it frequently opened late, didn’t have clean towels and there was no handy supply of cold water. The machines were all hi-tech with flat screen TVs to watch cable feed (hint: bring headphones with you) and offered an outstanding view from the bow of the ship. Yet many days at least 1/3 of the machines were out of order. A largish space in the middle of the gym was used for yoga.
There was no single deck available for walking all around the ship. The promenade (French for “walk”) deck involved two flights of steps and was also incredibly noisy.
The spa was well run and organized, although with a manic focus upon selling you add-on products. The actual massage/therapy/facials were above average; yet having them performed within an inside windowless room detracted from being on a cruise ship. There is an option available to take an on-deck massage in the quiet Sanctuary area of the ship and I’d recommend that. (Hint: you can book massage appointments online before the cruise, but cannot log preferences such as male/female attendant or location – so make them known your first day on board.)
The Sanctuary is a quiet area above the spa right at the front of the boat. It is very quiet and exclusive, possibly explained by the $15 cover charge per ˝ day. On the first cruise it was free, then $3, so Princess is still trying to get the price point right. Worth trying if you need to get away from it all for a day and be pampered with iced towels, water and healthy spa snacks.
There are four pools in all, none of them particularly large, but all liberally sprinkled with hot tubs. The two mid-deck pools on deck 15 offer live entertainment or a movie throughout most of the day. The Movies Under The Stars concept was impressive. A large movie screen/jumbotron, easily visible in bright daylight, plays recent movies from 10am through midnight. In the evening you can grab two deckchairs,
a drink and sit back in cushioned comfort to watch under the stars. We saw Fun with Dick and Jane and tonight’s late offering is Titanic - a ballsy choice for a cruise ship in my view!!
Other random facilities include cyber-golf, an exquisite Italian piazza with circus performers, a bad coffee café, numerous bars, a library, casino and a collection of mostly worthless and expensive high end shops and art galleries. The final place of note is the Internet Café, supporting both CP’s hard-wired computers and wireless connectivity at 35c per minute. So type fast. Wireless access is availble in the public areas on decks 5-7 and lido deck 15. It’s also a very screwy, antiquated system requiring you to install a security certificate in a cumbersome 8-step process before you get started for the first time.
I also spoke to a disabled gent in wheelchair who told me this was the most wheelchair-friendly boat he had ever been on.
The Room
We booked a standard outside room with a balcony on the Baja deck (deck 11). The room was functional with a queen size bed (can split into two singles), desk, refrigerator, two chairs and standard TV shelf-mounted above the fridge. Closet storage space was more than sufficient as the suitcases fit under the bed when emptied. The bathroom was , well, utilitarian, offering a shower, toilet and sink. You could get two people in the bathroom as long as one was in the shower and you were good friends.
The balcony made the trip and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone. We had a table, two chairs, peace and quiet and a place to have the free continental breakfast every morning and the gin and tonics every evening.
Interior cabins looked to be about the size as ours, but obviously with no balcony. The decks below us (#9 & #10 – Caribe and Dolphin) had larger mini-suites, the main difference being a bigger balcony and a small sitting room area separate from the bedroom. The larger suites have a bath as well as a shower.
A quick word of praise for our steward, Chayapat, whom we rarely saw, yet our room was always clean, tidy and serviced. The best service is the invisible efficient type and he did a magnificent job.
Food/Restaurants
Too much! Standard buffet fare, usually with some ethnic theme, is available for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Deck 15 in Café Caribe and Horizon Court. Breakfast is also available in the main dining room, as is lunch. There are also pizza and hot-dog stands available for the discerning palate at lunchtime. Dinner is offered in the DaVinci and Michelangelo rooms on the regular plan (standard dining – same place, same time), or freeform (you pick when and where and reserve that morning). The ship did a lousy job of explaining this and if you were a cruise virgin you ended up eating at 5pm or 10pm. Two specialty restaurants – Sabatini’s and the Crown – round out the selection, but at a $15-20 premium per diner. Sabatini’s offers mouth-watering Italian dining; you basically order your main course and they supply everything else until you yell “STOP!”. The Crown is more of an upscale classic seafood/steak joint. We decided that if either of these restaurants were transported off the ship to our local neighborhood we’d frequent them – of course the difference being you can order/mix-and-match as many courses as your heart desires and stomach digests while onboard.
The wine list was impressive and cheaper than I had expected. A pleasant surprise.
Ports of Call
My personal Caribbean favorite was Grand Cayman, then Grand Turk, and lastly Ocho Rios Jamaica although my memorable outing was ziplining through the Jamaican jungle canopy. In Grand Cayman we tried snorkeling and then visited Stingray City – where I got to hold, feed and kiss one of the stingrays. It is a little disconcerting when you first get into the water and see these dark shapes heading for you underwater but it is a wonderful experience. In Grand Turk we just bummed around the beach for most of the day and hit Margeritaville before re-boarding.
Many passengers complained about the descriptions of the shore excursions not matching what was delivered, especially in Jamaica. Crown definitely needs some better quality control in this area. When docked in Port Canaveral we visited the Kennedy Space Center which was an adventure for an old engineer like myself. I felt a little rushed but c’est la vie.
Bottom Line
Would I go back and take another cruise on this ship? Yes. I’ll charitably write off some of the annoyances to teething troubles and assume that they’ll get everything figured out. So far, a week into the cruise, it’s been one of the most relaxing weeks of my life.
THE INCIDENT
About an hour after leaving Port Canaveral my wife and I were in our cabin ready for a nap after a hard morning – it was about 3.30pm.
John – don’t you feel the boat rocking? It’s dead calm out there.
The boat starts to rock and wiggle from side to side. Suddenly the boat lurches to the right/starboard. My wife heads out to the balcony (our side was going up in the air) and I’m thinking we’re swerving to avoid a collision or a sandbar. Everything is still for 5-10 seconds and we’re expecting the boat to stabilize. It goes the other way and rolls further – we’re now at least 20 degrees over. Wife hangs onto the balcony railing for dear life and I grab the balcony door handle. My feet are off the ground, I can’t stand and I can’t see the ocean any more, all I see is sky. Meanwhile the entire contents of our cabin are heading stage left towards the cabin door. The TV is ripped off the mounting, I duck, and it hits the cabin door as well. I think we’ve hit something and we’re going sink. No word from the bridge. People are starting to scream. We clear the debris from the door, grab lifejackets and start to head downstairs. The captain comes on the loudspeaker, sounding out of breath and very, very shaken. There are people lying in the stairways with bumps, bruises and a few broken bones. The boat keeps going – no headcount or roll-call. We could be missing people and no-one would know. Water starts to pour down the elevator shafts and stairwells from the pools emptying on deck 15 and maybe from water taken onboard during the roll. Broken glass everywhere. Panicking parents hunting for their children. The boat is now stable and we’re out on the promenade deck, turning around going back to port and everyone is swapping “where were you?” stories. Over 200 people are injured, two seriously – meanwhile two a-hole lawyers are threatening to sue because they stop serving alcohol at the bars. We head back to the room, pack our bags ready to bolt when we dock. Then go to dinner with our friend Rick and Suzanne, drink free wine, good food, and our Romanian waiter utters the immortal words Only ice cream for dessert tonight, everything else – it is on the kitchen floor.. The crew have been great, so have 99% of the passengers helping each other out. The makeshift infirmary in one of the restaurants looks like a war zone. We see passengers with bandages everywhere. We decide to disembark and drive home. I get interviewed by two news channels. National Car Rental screws me with a bait and switch on a rental car – someone is always out for themselves to make a buck.
Would I get back on a ship for a cruise ? Yes I would , but maybe not the Crown Princess for a year or two until they figure it out. The cause ? Who knows at this point – maybe a navigation or stabilizer error, or maybe human error in someone reacting to the initial roll. Still an experience to tell my grandchildren
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Friends
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Epinions.com ID:
jcare
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Location: Southeast Pennsylvania
Reviews written: 270
Trusted by: 219 members
About Me:
Bullets can hurt people. Both in guns and PowerPoint.
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